IRFU silent on Exiles boss Smith’s blast

The IRFU made no response yesterday following London Irish head coach Brian Smith’s assertion that they “hung out to dry” his new signing Tomás O’Leary.

Scrum-half O’Leary left Munster at the end of the season to join the Exiles in the English Premiership on a three-year contract having struggled to retain his place in the province’s starting line-up and was omitted from Ireland’s World Cup squad last autumn.

“Tomás O’Leary has never stopped being a brilliant player. He was hung out to dry and the fact that he was a bit of a scapegoat is something that he can’t control,” Smith said in yesterday’s Irish Examiner.

While his former bosses declined to comment yesterday, they are privately believed to be mystified at Smith’s comments given the scrum-half was kept out of the squad by Conor Murray, the provincial team-mate also keeping him out of the Munster XV.

But the IRFU did announce yesterday that former Ireland hooker Allen Clarke was announced as the new head of the Ulster Academy which he kick-started nearly a decade ago.